Real or Hoax? Steve Martin Reveals Baby Girl’s Name

Is the celebrity dad making another joke? It's hard to tell...

He’s a Hollywood icon. I best remember Steve Martin has the frazzled father-in-law-to-be George Banks in the Father of the Bride series. In that turn as an iconic father, he gave his two (and later, three) children incredible normal baby names: his bride-to-be daughter, Annie; his teenage son, Matty (presumably Matthew); and his late-in-life baby girl, Megan.

In some ways, life’s been imitating art for Martin lately. Just like his character in the Father of the Bride series, Martin’s wife, Anne Stringfield, recently had a little girl. But unlike George Banks, the real-life Martin has apparently gone far off the beaten track to come up with baby names for his daughter … or has he?

This week, Martin appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to talk about this stage of fatherhood. The celebrity dad gushed about his daughter, now 2 months old, and even mentioned that he’d brought the baby monitor so he could keep tabs on the baby, who was across town at a hotel. Then, Martin dropped a bombshell; up until now, he’d been very private about his baby girl’s name, refusing to disclose the baby names he and Stringfield had chosen to the press. But when Martin revealed his daughter’s name on air, it was hard to take him seriously.

Why?

Well, just check out the name Martin shared: Conquistador.

Mull on that for a moment. Then, consider that Conquistador has never, not once, appeared on the Social Security Administration’s list of top 1,000 baby names over the past 140 years, indicating it’s never been even fleetingly popular. Now, consider the setting: Martin is a celebrity dad, and Hollywood stars have been known to do crazy things when it comes to baby names — look no further than Nicholas Cage’s son Kal-el, or Jason Lee’s boy, Pilot Inspektor. And finally, remember who’s divulging this information: Steve Martin is one of Hollywood’s foremost comedians; anything he says must be taken with a grain of salt.

Yet, there’s a part of me that wonders whether Martin’s being honest or ironic. After all, I wouldn’t put it past a comedian to name his child something as outlandish; although, I wouldn’t wish a name like Conquistador on anybody.

I guess only time will tell if Martin was being truthful or facetious. What do you think?